By Fr. Roy Cimagala
WITH all the things that we are now exposed to, we cannot be naïve to think that as long as these things are not instantly wrong, we can feel free to receive them anytime. That kind of mindset may be applicable in times past when things were quite simple and relatively clean.
But not anymore now. Many of the things that we used to take for granted to be good may now contain a lot of hidden dirt. And so, we need some kind of filters and purifiers, especially in our spiritual and moral life.
Before, for example, we used to take tap water directly from the faucet or the well, and it was just ok. Not anymore now. Water now needs to go through some process of filtration and purification for it to be safe water to drink.
If that is the case with ordinary water, it is much more so in the things that affect our spiritual and moral life. Movies, video clips, social media, etc. can give us a lot of information and knowledge, but they also bring with them a lot of dirt, mostly hidden, in terms of fake news, distractions, click baits, and all kinds of temptations.
We now have to learn how to deal with this reality that may have given us a lot of good, but also has led us to all sorts of anomaly, like addiction to pornography and self-indulgence, the rise of hidden bondage and all sorts of mental and psychological illnesses, the spreading of fake news, etc.
Basically, what is needed is for us to be truly anchored on God. We cannot overemphasize the importance of this truth. If we would just rely on our own powers, there is no way we can properly handle the things around that contain a complicated mixture of good and evil.
With God, we can always act with prudence, we would have a clear vision of the real and ultimate purpose of our life here on earth, we would be properly guarded against temptations and the occasions of sin. Somehow, we would have a good sense of priority among the many things that we have to handle, giving precedence always to our spiritual needs over our bodily needs, etc.
We should try our best that we be with God always. That is actually what is proper to us. Our life is meant to be a life with God always. Whatever we do should be done with God and for God.
With God, we would know how to filter the bad elements that go or are mixed with the good and legitimate things we handle everyday, including the very subtle ones that can easily escape notice from us.
We should see to it also that our true hunger is to be with God. This is how we purify ourselves. We should not be contented with feeling clean due to the filtering of the spiritual and moral dirt we do while handling the things of today’s world. We should be intensely attracted to God such that God should be our greatest and strongest hunger.
Let’s take care of our daily examinations of conscience where we can identify where we have gone wrong, where we need some improvement, and where we can make the appropriate resolutions, plans and strategies to tackle the very complicated challenges we are facing today.
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